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Jarmecca “Nikki” Whitehead killed and bitten by twin daughters

The town of Conyers, Georgia was known for its tranquility, but on January 13, 2010, the peaceful atmosphere was shattered when Jarmecca “Nicky” Whitehead34, was found stabbed In their home.

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TThe gruesome discovery was made by her 16-year-old twin daughters Jasmiya and Tasmiyah Whitehead. One of the sisters had run outside and screams for help to a deputy sheriff who happens to be nearby.

“It was an unimaginably brutal crime scene,” said Assistant District Attorney Titus Nichols in the episode “A Murdered Mother” of The real murders of AtlantaBroadcast Saturdays at 21:00/20:00 on oxygen.

Who was Nikki Whitehead?

Nikki was “an amazing person,” said Yucca Harris, her longtime best friend The real murders of Atlanta“She didn't come from a structure, but Nikki graduated and became a hairdresser.”

To expand her opportunities, Nikki enrolled at Bauder College in Atlanta to study fashion. Her teacher, Ronda Anderson, described her as “so energetic” and “a very loving mother.”

When the twins' biological father found out Nikki was pregnant, he “dropped out” and moved to Canada, said Atlanta television journalist Shaunya Chavis. The real murders of Atlanta.

What happened to Nikki Whitehead?

Nikki was found stabbed to death in a bathtub with water in it. She was wearing a nightgown “and was completely covered in blood,” said Greg Carson, a now-retired Conyers police lieutenant. “It was horrific.”

Nikki had numerous cuts on her forearms and hands, stab wounds on her back and neck, a bite mark on her arm, and defensive wounds. The medical examiner estimated she was killed between 8 and 10 a.m. on January 13, 2010. Sheriffs saw no signs of forced entry that day.

A bloody trail showed that Nikki had been dragged from her bedroom into the bathroom. In the living room, investigators found a broken vase and a blood-stained sofa.

Forensic evidence was collected for DNA analysis and a bite mark was made. “I've been to crime scenes with a lot of blood, but this was unlike anything I've ever seen,” Carson said. “You can smell it, even taste it.”

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Twins Jasmiyah and Tasmiyah interrogated by the police

At police headquarters, the twins described the day's events. They said they left home at 8 a.m. and walked to school, where they arrived about 10 minutes late for school to start. After school, they found their mother, the girls told police.

The investigators learned from the twins that Nikki’s Friend, Robert Head, then 55, also lived with them. Head, a truck driver, He had been in the house the day before, but was not there now, the girls told the officers.

The sisters were released into the care of their great-grandmother and investigators attempted to contact Head.

Nikki Whitehead's two lovers are questioned

Surprisingly, investigators learned that Nikki was also dating another man, Joe Carter. He worked at a hair salon next door to Nikki's salon.

“Police believe there are several possible motives,” Chavis said. “Did Robert Head find out about Joe Carter? Was Joe Carter upset about Robert?”

Carter was “deeply saddened” when police informed him of Nikki's murder. He told them he and Nikki “were lovers for several months,” said Jackie Dunn, a now-retired Conyers police captain.

Video surveillance footage confirmed Carter's alibi for his whereabouts at the time of the stabbing, so he was ruled out as a suspect.

When investigators contacted Head, he was distraught about Nikki. He said he knew about Carter and that he and Nikki had “a mutual understanding,” Chavis said.

Investigators confirmed that Head was traveling in Indiana at the time of Nikki's murder. He was cleared as a suspect.

Surveillance video changes course of the case

Investigators discovered surveillance footage from January 13 at a gas station across the street from Nikki's home.

When reviewing the tape, investigators were shocked to see the twins at the gas station at 10:10 a.m. The girls had said they left home at 8 a.m. to go to school. “We had to find out why they were lying,” Dunn said.

During the second police interview, the twins were questioned separately. “We confronted them with the contradictions in their statements,” Dunn said.

Police found the girls were no longer as cooperative and grieving as they had been when they were first interviewed. “They became very dismissive,” Nichols said.

Before investigators completed their questioning of the twins, they took blood samples and made impressions of their teeth.

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Nikki Whitehead's family problems

When police investigated Nikki's family history in depth, previous problems between the girls and their mother came to light.

In June 2008, police were called to the house. The girls said Nikki had attacked them. Nikki said the girls had attacked her, Nichols said.

After the incident, a judge ruled that the twins should live with their great-grandmother, The real murders of Atlanta.

“Nikki was devastated,” Chavis said. After a nearly two-year custody battle, Nikki was awarded sole custody of her daughters in January 2010.

The celebrations for the twins' return were short-lived, however. “The police learned that the girls were completely against it,” Nichols said.

“It quickly escalated to Nikki complaining that the girls were threatening her and that she was afraid of them,” Dunn said.

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Because the twins were considered possible suspects, investigators searched Nikki's house a second time. In the girls' bedroom, they found notes in diaries that the girls had written to each other.

In the notes, Nichols said, the girls spoke about their desire to leave. Entries from January 5th sent a chill down investigators' spines.

“One wrote to the other, 'If we don't get rid of them now, we're stuck here forever,'” Dunn said. “The second agreed. That made us believe this incident was intentional.”

Surveillance footage shows twins near their home at the time of their mother's murder

Who killed Nikki Whitehead?

Crime lab results showed that the blood at the crime scene was from Nikki and her twin daughters. Forensic evidence showed that Tasmiyah had bitten Nikki. After four months of investigation, supported by forensic evidence, time discrepancies and diary entries, authorities arrested the twins on charges of murder and aggravated assault.

At that point, investigators realized the sisters were not the defenseless victims they appeared to be in January. “They were mean, cursing, being nasty and threatening,” Carson said. “A complete Jekyll and Hyde.”

It was an eye-opening turn of events. “Nobody could believe it,” Chavis said. “Nobody saw it coming.”

The girls were given the opportunity to confess, and they did. As part of the deal, they had to give a video interview revealing what happened the day Nikki was murdered.

In the chilling video, the twins described in detail how they had argued with their mother that morning. One girl hit Nikki with the vase and then stabbed her repeatedly, according to the recorded confession. The sisters dragged Nikki to the bathtub “as if they were working together,” Tasmiyah said.

Jasmiyah described her mother's final moments in the tub filled with water. “She went under a couple of times and that was it,” she said.

The sisters were sentenced to 30 years in prison with the possibility of parole.

Learn more about the Case, watch The Episode “A Murdered Mother” by The real murders of AtlantaBroadcast Saturdays at 21:00/20:00 on oxygen.

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